


Rise above the ashes

by ChibyL



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Bullying, Gabriel is a sweetheart, M/M, Protective Dean Winchester, Protective Sam Winchester, gymnast!Cas, paraplegic!Cas, wheelchair
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-07-29
Updated: 2015-12-05
Packaged: 2018-04-11 20:57:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,085
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4452092
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChibyL/pseuds/ChibyL
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean hasn’t had an easy life at first, so when Sam starts high school he does his best to help his brother, even if it means that Dean has to be a jerk. A bully. What he hates the most. Things change when he meets two special brothers who shares worst scares than Dean’s own.<br/>Warnings: wheelchair!Cas (at the beginning only), bullying</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The new kid

**Author's Note:**

> Hi everyone!
> 
> So, I think I wrote everything in the warnings and obviously I don't own Supernatural (or maybe I do, but I don't want to tell you because I want to keep all that amazing boys just for me!)
> 
> So, well, leave me a review and I'll send an Angel to you :-)
> 
> Or not.
> 
> Thanks to my beta for the hard work!
> 
> Well, I hope you'll enjoy the idea! Let me know what you think about it!

_**The new kid** _

"Let me introduce you to your new classmate, say hello to Gabriel Novak."

As much as Dean doesn't like it, it looks like the biggest cliché ever. New year, new damn hot classmate and an empty desk next to him. Well, thank you Raphael for being late on the first day!

The guy stands for a moment next to the teacher, rolling his eyes while everyone else looks at him, invading his privacy with no hint of decency. Dean would like to say that he has nothing to look at, that he is just waiting for the lesson to start, but honestly he is pleased to see someone as handsome as this new kid. Dean has a tendency to be somehow fascinated by big strong guys who wear leather jackets and ripped jeans.

So when the boy finally moves from the teacher's desk to the empty chair next to him, Dean can't help but stare. He doesn't greet Gabriel when he finally sits, though. Instead he stubbornly keeps his eyes on the teacher, he has a reputation to keep and he can't lose it for the first fine ass he sees.

Gabriel sits quietly, taking a notebook out from his bag and twisting a pen into his hands; Dean barely looks at him with the corner of his eye for the first ten minutes of the lesson, before getting frustrated. It's the first day after summer break and he can't stand Ms. Wilson talking about redox, anions and whatever else when he hasn't had a coffee yet.

"Hey, hi!" He finally says, leaning a bit in Gabriel's direction, "I'm Dean."

"Gabriel."

Dean wishes he could understand the guy's face.

He's not the first new kid who sits next to Dean and he thought he was prepared for every reaction. Matt Kowloon, in second grade sat next to him on his first day and he wouldn't stop chewing, he even offered Dean a stick of gum when they started talking and Dean soon understood that he was a really kind kid; Jo Harvelle on their first day in high school was really pissed when Dean spoke to her during the lesson, later he understood that she was too much of a good girl to not pay attention; then there was Raphael Steer, last year, he grinned at Dean and that was the official sign for 'We are going to be good friends'.

And now this guy, Gabriel blinks at Dean with a blank face and tells him his name, which he obviously already knows, since the teacher said it no longer than fifteen minutes ago.

Whatever, he is bored and Gabriel is hot.

"Why did you change schools?" He asks, trying to get to know him.

"I've been expelled from my old school," Gabriel replies writing something on his notebook.

Now, this is interesting. Expelled? So he is a badass. "What did you do?"

"None of your business." Despite the harsh words, he doesn't seem annoyed, or at least that's what Dean hopes. So, when Gabriel's hand stops and it's clear that he won't write anything else, Dean asks again, "Where did you –"

"Winchester!" Ms. Wilson shouts and Dean snaps his head in her direction.

"How could you grease the new kid, talking to him while I'm trying to teach here?" Dean says with a hint of irony, doing a bad impression of the teacher. Then he closes his mouth, making and exaggerated pout and mimes sewing his lips with an ideal needle, "No more talking, got it."

Gabriel next to him barely holds back a laugh and that's all Dean needs to see to know that they'll do great together.

So he waits for the bell to ring and as soon as the lesson ends he tries to talk to Gabriel again, asking him something about his life, telling him about himself.

And that's the beginning of their new friendship.

On the second day of school Dean knows that Gabriel sucks in math, which happens to be a common thing among Dean's friends apparently. Both Azazel and Raphael haven't passed last year and it's a miracle Dean managed to get a C. He also knows that Gabriel loves sports, especially lacrosse and it's a pity because there's only a football team in their school.

They sit together at lunch, so Gabriel has a chance to meet most of Dean's friends and they seem to get along together pretty well, even if Dean has a feeling it's just because Raphael is still missing, so he can't mess up with the new boy. Gabriel is nice to Sam too and that's a bonus because sometimes Sam is just a pain in the ass. When Dean points that out, Gabriel just answers that he knows how little brothers sucks sometimes and Dean shrugs it off.

Right now they are sitting in the cafeteria, talking about a weird guy with big glasses and butt face. Dean laughs when Ezekiel mentions tripping on the ground all his books after the last period, but he doesn't miss how Gabriel's expression hardens. He is used to that judging face, Sam used to do that too the first times he saw how Dean and his friends treated the others. Now he knows better than to judge them, so when they do this kind of jokes, Sam pulls a book out of his bag and reads; he pretends to not listen and the others pretend not to see how weird he is acting. Gabriel will understand too, or at least, he'll get used to all of this. It takes a while, Dean knows that, but once you get addicted to laughing about someone else's bad luck, well, it actually begins to be fun.

Not that Dean is pleased about what he does. He just has to act like this, he has to pretend that it makes him happy to see someone else being bullied like that, because if he doesn't they'll pick up on him, or on Sam which is probably worse. So he laughs and he doesn't regret it.

"Hey, look at that freak over there!" Azazel says, and they all look into the direction he is pointing to.

There is Jo Harvelle entering the cafeteria and she is happily jogging next to a guy who happens to be in a wheelchair, talking quietly to him. Dean doesn't have a chance to say or do anything, because suddenly Gabriel slams his hand on the table, standing up so quickly that his chair almost tips over and he walks away.

Everyone stays silent. They look at each other, rolling their eyes or shrugging their shoulders and Dean can read disappointment into his little brother's eyes as Sam picks at his food with a fork, ignoring everyone else.

"I need to go to the bathroom," Dean says on impulse, collecting his things and getting up, without even finishing his lunch. Everybody knows that he doesn't need to go to the bathroom and that he'll look for Gabriel, there isn't a real reason why he didn't say it out loud in the first place, but Sam gives him an encouraging nod, so he doesn't waste any time trying to justify himself, not even when Azazel says something about Dean's pants getting too tight every time he sees a leather jacket dressing Gabriel's nice frame so well.

He walks to the bathroom, checking in there first. Maybe Gabriel had just had a bad case of diarrhea or something like that. But that would have been too easy. He heads to the garden next, hoping he'll be able to recognize him, even around all the other students who like to eat out here, instead of the cafeteria.

Dean walks back and forth through the garden three times, but there is no trace of Gabriel and the only thing he can do is go to class, before the bell rings. When he opens the door, he wants to slap his face with his own hand. How come he didn't even thought about checking in there? Obviously Gabriel is new here and being all alone, the only place he could have been was right here, where he would have had to come later anyways.

You are a fucking genius, Dean Winchester.

Gabriel is sitting on his chair, balancing his weight on the two rear legs and writing something on his phone; he is so focused that Dean doesn't know if Gabriel hasn't noticed him or is just pretending.

So he turns his own chair, sitting with legs astride and resting his elbows on the headboard, "You okay? What happened?"

Of course Gabriel doesn't answer; he turns his phone off and crosses his arms over his chest, sitting in a less dangerous way.

"Come on, dude, what's wrong?"

"Fuck off Dean," Gabriel snaps; finally looking at him and Dean just can't get what's going on. Gabriel's eyes are almost glowing with rage, like Dean had just murdered his puppy.

"Is it my fault? What have I done now?" Gabriel doesn't reply, he raises his brow giving him a weird look, and Dean faintly asks, "Is it because of that joke about the guy in the wheelchair?"

Gabriel closes his eyes, snapping his tongue into his mouth and producing a weird noise, "Yes, Dean!" He replies, turning to him with his whole body, partially leaning over the desk, "It's because of that joke. Do you know how inappropriate it was? Do you have an idea of how stupid and immature and – and, God, I can't even find words to tell you how disgusted I am."

"Hey, calm down, man and stop being so fucking judgmental. Come on; don't tell me you have never made a joke like that."

"I haven't."

"Oh, really? But you were expelled from your old school so you must have done something bad too." Dean says, leaning into Gabriel's direction, getting so near that he can almost feel Gabriel's breath on his face. It's his turn to cross his arms over his chest. He looks directly into Gabriel's big eyes, turning his head slightly to the right. No one is flawless, and of course no one has the right to talk to Dean like that.

"Do you really want to know why I have been expelled? Fine. I punched my classmate until he was unconscious. Broke his jaw and dislocated his knee."

"Wow," is all Dean manages to mumble, a little shaken up by this revelation. Sure, he looks like a badass and Dean has no doubt he knows how to throw a punch, but fuck, broken jaw? Dislocated knee? Maybe he is a psycho! Maybe if there is a freak here, it's Gabriel himself.

"And do you want to know why I did that?" Gabriel asks, sucking in a big gulp of hair before going on, "I did what I did, because he had tripped my brother down the stairs, putting him in a wheelchair. Yes, Dean. The 'freak over there' was my brother."

Dean's eyes widen and suddenly he doesn't remember how to breathe. Fuck. Fuck. Fuck. This is wrong in so many ways.

"So, yeah, excuse me if I'm sick of you and your friends bullying everyone else. When I came here I promised my brother I would make friends and I tried, I really did. You seemed okay, I mean, you are funny and smart and the way you act around Sam is awesome. But what you said –"

"I didn't say anything, it was Azazel."

"You laughed and that makes you as a bad person as they all are. You laughed when they tripped that kid and knocked his books onto the floor and you laughed when they called my brother a fre –"

"Gabriel, I'm sorry. I didn't want to upset you and of course I didn't want to offend your brother."

"You know what, Dean? I don't care. I'm not even pissed; I just want for you to shut the fuck up and never talk to me again."

Dean chews on his lip, desperately trying to find something smart to say, something that would make Gabriel really believe that Dean didn't meant to hurt his brother and that he was just trying to protect his own little brother. But how is he supposed to explain it to Gabriel? His reasons suddenly seem so useless and the only thing he can do is sit with his back on his chair and patiently wait for the bell to ring.

And well, he is unlucky enough that it takes almost ten minutes for the lesson to start, ten long excruciating minutes where he just sits there and the atmosphere is so thick that Dean feels breathless.

When the teacher comes in and finally starts doing his job, Dean can't pay attention to what he is saying. It's French, and after physical education, Dean's favorite subject, maybe because the teacher is a hot redhead who dresses like he is a model. But right now not even that beauty can tear Dean's mind off of what just happened.

His heart is still beating so fast, he can hear the blood rushing in his ears; his hands are shaking so bad that he gives up on taking notes and just sits in silence for the whole period.

He has never thought about the person he was picking on; he has always thought, well better them than himself or Sam. It all changes now, when he sees the hurt look on Gabriel's face every time he turns to look at him and he feels so bad that he might cry.


	2. The same mistake

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean has to find a way to make it up to Gabriel and it's not that easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so so soooo SORRY it took so long to update this one.
> 
> I'll try to be better!
> 
> Also, thanks to my beta!
> 
> I hope you're going to enjoy this chapter, even if we still don't have anything solved (and the end of the chapter seems a little stupid maybe).

At the end of the lesson, Dean numbly picks up his books, putting them all into his duffle bag and heading out. When Azazel calls him, Dean says he's running late and simply goes to the parking lot and begins waiting for Sam.

 

“Did you talk to Gabriel?” is the first thing his brother asks when he arrives, taking his place in the passenger’s seat and throwing his bag in the back.

 

“I tried, if that’s what you want to know.”

 

Sam nods, “So, why did he get so angry all of a sudden?”

 

“Sam, can I tell you a secret?” Dean asks and he knows it’s a dumb question. Sam is the only one who knows that Dean smokes and he has never mentioned it to his parents; Sam knows that Dean was failing in math last year and he kept it to himself. Hell, Sam even knows that Dean isn’t just into girls, but into men too and it doesn’t seem to bother him. Dean isn’t even sure that what he's about to tell Sam _is_ a secret, he just has a feeling that it isn’t his place to talk this.

 

“That guy, in the wheelchair, he's Gabriel’s brother.”

 

“I know.” Sam says and when Dean rises his brow with disbelief, he adds, “What? Are you wondering why I didn’t tell you?”

 

“That, yeah. And especially, how did you even know.”

 

“Cas is in my class, they have the same surname. And why I didn’t tell you? What was I supposed to say? 'Hey, stop joking about the little disabled kid, let’s joke about his older brother who doesn’t even tell his alleged friends that he has a brother.”

 

To see Sam this angry is something that rarely happens, which Dean is thankful for, it scares him every time Sam yells and he is fucking yelling right now.

 

“Why do you think he didn’t tell us?”

 

Sam rolls his eyes, “Come on, Dean, you can’t seriously be asking me this! You always go around saying shit about every little flaw, of every fucking one and in your dumb mind a wheelchair is a big flaw. And you don’t need to be a genius to know that it was better not to mention it.”

 

At this point Dean turns the stereo on. He can’t stand this conversation, not right now, not ever.

_I heard, heard myself,_

_Say things I take back_

_If I could, could retell_

_And make these stories last._

 

With a grunt he turns the stereo back off. Someone up _there_ must be really angry at Dean and He is taking his revenge acting on his sense of guilt. Well, that someone up there? He is doing a fucking amazing job.

 

Luckily Sam seems to understand and stays quiet until they get home. Their parents are at work, so he can lock himself up in his room and lay on his bed, with his head on a pillow and his legs spread apart. When did he become such a mess? When had he decided to turn against everything his parents had ever taught him?

 

He throws a punch into the mattress and stands up, desperately looking for his gym shorts and once he finds them he puts them on and pulls on a pair of his oldest shoes.

 

“Sam, I’m going out,” he yells, closing the door before Sam has a chance to see him.

 

He takes a deep breath and starts running. It’s a slow jog at first, like what he used to do years ago. He has always found it relaxing. When he couldn’t calm his mind down, he used to run until his body was too exhausted and he didn’t have the strength to think anymore.

 

When they lived in Kentucky, Dean was everything but popular, but things were okay.

 

When they moved to Lawrence things had turned to the worst. Dean doesn’t know how many of his papers the jocks had ripped, how many pens they had broken. And that was on his best days. He used to be thrown into dumpsters at least once a week and he can’t count how many times his head had been put into a toilet. He used to come home in tears, drenched from head to toe just because someone thought it would be funny to empty a water bottle on him and his books.

 

So, during his second year, when Sam came into the school, he swore he wouldn’t allow anyone to do that to him. Self preservation, right? And then Gabriel comes and turns his world upside down.

 

Gabriel and his brother are new here and they probably share far worse experiences than Dean’s own. And as much as he hates himself for it, Dean is now a part of the _bad_ that has happened in their lives.

 

It makes him so sad that he starts to run faster and faster without even realizing what he's doing. He runs for so long that when he stops his legs are shaking and he knows that he won’t be able to make it back home on his feet, so he waits for a bus.

 

If this was a movie, he thinks with a faint smile, right about now he would somehow meet Gabriel and they would make up. But this isn’t a movie and the only person Dean meets is a Greek tourist who sits next to him on the bus and starts to tell him something in his native language that Dean obviously doesn’t understand.

 

When he finally arrives home it’s late. Mom and Dad haven’t come back and that’s not new, but the whole house smells of chicken noodles and he has to thank Sam for that. His brother always knows how to cheer him up. He showers at an impossible speed and leaves his hair damp, too hungry to care about it.

 

“So…” Sam says, appearing from the kitchen and putting a plate in front of him, “You okay, now?”

 

“Chicken noodles solve everything. They should use them for public relations with Afghanistan.”

 

Sam laughs, “Yeah, you have just found the solution to avoid World War three. Amazing work, Dean.”

 

“Sam?” he says in a blank tone, waiting for his brother to say something intelligent, the way only Sam can do.

 

“You need to talk to Gabriel, Dean. And you need to stop doing everything Raphael does. He is not even going to school anymore, did you know that? Someone in my class said he's been sent to a military academy. And you don’t need to be like him. You are better than that.”

 

Dean chews his food, holding his fork up and pointing it at Sam, “You-” he wants to say that Sam doesn’t need to worry about him, but he changes his mind, “You are fucking right, little bro.”

 

He needs to talk to Gabriel. This is his last thought when he goes to sleep and the first when he wakes up the morning.

 

But  for two days Dean just looks at Gabriel from a distance.

 

They still sit next to each other but only because the chair next to Dean is empty. Gabriel seems to be good at ignoring Dean, so he doesn’t have to sit too far away to pretend he doesn’t exist. In fact they don't talk, not even once. Dean has tried to at least say good morning, but Gabriel won’t even look at him. When Gabriel doesn't show up at lunch, Dean thinks that he has gone somewhere else with his brother, since he doesn't see the kid in wheelchair either.

 

But Dean is trying to improve himself anyway, sitting alone with Sam and avoiding the others as much as he can. Not that they seem bothered about his absence. Azazel asks him if everything is okay with Sam, and Dean lets him think that he is playing the big brother and solving Sam’s problems. There is no point trying to explain what’s going on to someone as dumb as Azazel and besides, without Raphael he probably doesn’t even need to worry. These two, Azazel and Ezekiel are just two morons who open their mouths without knowing what to say.

 

On the third day since Dean spoke to Gabriel nothing had changed between them yet. When the lesson ends, Dean stares again at Gabriel as he silently puts his book into his red duffle bag, straightening his jeans and shirt as he stands up and walks away.

 

Dean sighs when Ezekiel asks him if he's joining the others for lunch, since Sam hasn’t come to school today, but in the end he shakes his head and goes into the opposite direction they are heading to.

 

He has nowhere to go, obviously, so he just paces around the school, until he arrives in front of the open gym. There he is. He'll go to the bleachers where he used to go with Jo during his first year. He and Jo had been good friends, but then people change and situations change and when he decided he couldn't be an outcast anymore, he left her behind. He misses her, sometimes. But right now, it doesn’t matter, he's sad enough without thinking about Jo.

 

Dean sighs, running to the field and he is almost there when he notices someone else. Well, not just someone. It's Gabriel's brother, sitting there all alone.

 

For a moment he thinks about going back to Azazel and Ezekiel, but then he figures that this will probably be his best chance to show Gabriel that he isn’t a total moron.

 

"Hi," he says shyly, approaching him, hoping his brother didn't tell him what happened.

 

"Hi," the guy replies with a faint smile, "Need something?"

 

"No, I just- what are you doing here all alone?"

 

The guy rises a brow, the same way Gabriel always does and man, there is no doubting that they are brothers! "You do realize how creepy that sounds?" He asks seriously and Dean's eyes widen as the guy in front of him laughs out loud, "I'm pretty sure that's what the big bad wolf said to Red Riding Hood. And your face is awesome."

 

Dean blinks trying to get what’s so funny and then he forces his mouth to close. _Please don't say anything stupid, please don't say anything at all_. In the end he mumbles, "Aw, I meant, no one ever comes here. So, what are you doing?"

 

The guy smiles again and that's probably the nicest smile Dean has ever seen, "A friend took me here yesterday, I'm waiting for her."

 

"Jo?" Dean says out loud and the guy nods.

 

"You know her? Well, I'm Castiel." He says, holding his hand out and Dean shakes it,

 

"I'm Dean."

 

Castiel's hand freezes in Dean's and his face goes dark, "So _you're_ the famous Dean. Well, I thought I'd never meet you."

 

"What do you mean?"

 

Castiel awkwardly plays with his fingers in his lap, curling and uncurling them, "Seems that the only two people I know here hate you."

 

Dean sighs, "I guess Gabriel told you."

 

"Actually he didn't. He would never tell me something that might make me upset- which is kind of upsetting, by the way, he treats me like a two year old - but never mind that. I heard him talking to our sister. So, well, 'little freak'? Don’t worry, I've been called worse."

 

"I didn't mean-"

 

Castiel swallows, "I know. People never mean it, they just do it. It's fine, really. I’m just sad because my brother really liked you."

 

Dean blinks. It’s his moment, he has to apologize right now and pray for Castiel to interject for him with Gabriel. “I-”

 

"I know that you just want to be popular and that you didn't mean to hurt anyone. Gabriel used to be just like you.”

 

“He said he was disgusted by my behaviour."

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

“Honestly? You are the only one who shouldn’t apologize. And I really don’t want you and your brother to think I’m some dick. I won’t tell you everything, but trust me, I have my reasons if I had done something and I don’t think-”

 

“I don’t want to know your reasons and I’m not judging you. It’s okay, really. Not sure Gabriel thinks the same, though.”

 

They don’t talk for a while and the wheels inside Dean’s brain work frantically, his head swimming with so many thoughts. For example, if Gabriel isn’t with his brother, where is he? And where is Jo? Why is she late? He doesn’t ask any of this, but when Castiel looks at him, Dean talks again, "What changed? You said Gabriel used to be like me. So, what changed?”

 

The guy just shrugs, waving a hand over his legs, "I changed and my brother decided to turn into a boxer for a day."

 

"Yeah, he kind of told me that part. I would have done the same if someone had done something like that to my brother."

 

"I can tell you, your brother wouldn't have been pleased." Castiel says and Dean doesn't reply.

 

Instead he sits on the bleachers next to the wheelchair, looking up to the sky, "I used to love this place," he says out loud, thinking about all the days he had spent there with Jo when-

 

"I like here too. It's quiet."

 

When Dean turns to him again, Castiel has his head up, he is watching the clouds too. His mouth his half open and his eyes are so bright that Dean is afraid he might cry. When he finally tears his eyes from Castiel's face, he absently looks down to his body. He is dressed nicely and Dean wonders if there are abs hidden beneath his shirt, that seems too loose on him.

 

Then he looks at his legs. Nothing seems out of place down there. It's like he's just sitting in a chair. Acting almost on instinct, Dean brushes his fingers against Castiel's right leg.

 

"What are you doing?"

 

Dean jumps taking his hand back and blushing uncontrollably. "I was- I was just-"

 

"I could feel it, if that's what you're wondering."

 

"How?" Is this some sort of miracle?

 

"I'm not paralyzed. Not permanently at least. I can feel everything, I just can't move them."

 

"Why did they trip you?" Dean dares to ask. Gabriel never explained this part of the story and honestly Dean is curious. Why would someone mess with someone who seems as genuine as Castiel?

 

"Why did you laugh when your friend said I was a freak?"

 

Dean opens his mouth three times before answering, "I- well, I couldn't do anything else."

 

"That's right."

 

"What do you mean?"

 

"Things happen, Dean. I wasn't a freak, I wasn't even popular. You know the kind of people you walk next to, but you don't even acknowledge them? Well, I was one of them. I had no enemies back then, I was one of the many, no one and I was okay with that.”

 

“Yeah, I know that feeling,” he remembers with a shiver, the good times back then, when he was in Kentucky.

 

Castiel sighs. “It was just a stupid bet between Gabriel and Uriel. Who could fuck a girl first was the winner. Gabriel won and Uriel took his revenge. I was the one who paid the price of a stupid joke. That's how the world works."

 

“Uriel tripped you down the stairs because he lost a bet?”

 

“You laughed about me being paralyzed just to be popular.”

 

Dean looks at him in shock, “I would never hurt anyone,” but of course Castiel replies that, “Even words hurt sometimes. Sometimes they hurt worse than the step of a stair against your back.”

 

“I’m so-”

 

“What are you doing here?” Apparently this situation will never get better, if Jo’s appearance means anything. The girl runs the last steps in their direction, stopping in front of Dean with her legs apart and her fists clenched, “You are not wanted here. So goodbye.”

 

“We were just talking, Jo,” Castiel says and Dean gives him a thankful look.

 

“Really? And what were you talking about? Because if I remember well, the only thing you could say to someone like us is to go the fuck away and don’t bothercalling you again, because you have a life now.” That’s the last thing Dean had told Jo, exactly a year ago and he wishes Castiel would have never heard those words.

 

“I’ll make it up to you and your brother,” he says and then he stands up, waving goodbye to Castiel, but the boy grabs his wrist with his hand. It’s cold against Dean’s skin, nice and soft and for some reason he just stops there.

 

"Dean, you have nothing to make up for with me. As for Gabriel, he isn't one who forgives, so good luck."

 

"Castiel, come on. You're his brother, tell me what I can do to fix this. Please."

 

Next to him, Jo grunts and Dean forces his eyes away from Castiel’s nice face to look at her, “Jo, please. Give me a minute and I’ll disappear. Just-”

 

“Please?!” she yells, “How dare you ask me for _anything_ after the way you treated me! Dean, I’ve licked your wounds more times than I can count. I have sheltered you every time Raphael threatened you. And then? One day you decided to be his buddy, leaving me alone. You never explained, you never told me what happened and more specifically why it happened in the first place. So, sorry if I don’t give a shit about your pleads. Now, go.”

 

It’s like an ice cold shower. Dean just stands there, numb, trying to figure out how to get her forgiveness too. “Jo, look, I’m sorry. I did something horrible to you and I never said how sorry I was. I did something horrible to Gabriel too, and now I need to apologize, before it’s too late.”

 

“I said go away before I kick your ass. And remember, Winchester, I’m the one who taught you how to throw a punch. I bet I can still break that pretty nose of yours.”

 

“Please, Jo, don’t let me make the same mistake a second time.” He doesn’t care that he is pratically begging her. He doesn’t care if he has to put all his pride aside, he knows it’s for a good cause. He can live with a little embarrassment, if it’s what it takes to do the right thing for once.

 

“Your choice, Cas.” Jo finally says, sitting on the bench, crossing her legs and turning away from them.

 

Now, Dean can concentrate on Castiel again, who’s face is clueless, as if he's unaware of what’s going on and Dean wonders how much Jo had already told him. “Castiel?” he calls.

 

"Let me see. You could bake a cake for him."

 

"I can't bake."

 

"He wouldn't eat it. He would just splatter it all over you face, but it would make him feel better.”

 

At this point it’s clear that Castiel is just making fun of him, so Dean decides not to waste anymore time with this idiot and turns away from him and Jo.

 

He has done less than ten steps when he hears Castiel yell at him, “Oh and Dean? Lots of cream on the cake.”


	3. So strong

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dean and Gabriel can't fight forever, can they?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I am always impossibly slow. 
> 
> Hope you'll like this chapter, even if it seems... well... sort of stupid?!

It takes the entire evening for Dean to decide what he wants to do. The choice is not that easy. Humiliate yourself and put everything you have worked on the last two years, in jeopardy or let it be and keep being the jerk who makes fun of the guy in a wheelchair and become the black sheep of the Winchester family. He is getting so worked up that he can’t even talk to Sam about it.

 

In the end he decides he’ll give himself a chance to show everyone that he is a better person, even if that means following Castiel’s stupid advice.

 

It’s almost midnight when he finally gets up from his bed and goes into the kitchen. Sam is sleeping, so luckily no one will see him doing this. Fuck, he could be blackmailed forever if he's caught trying to cook!

 

He has googled a recipe for a chocolate cake, deciding that if it has to collide with his face, it’d better taste good. There is no butter in the fridge, so he decides to use oil and how is he supposed to weigh all the ingredients? He has no idea where Sam keeps the scale and wouldn’t it have been easier if all the ingredients were measured in spoons? Cups, maybe? Nope. And now he needs to find a bowl. There is one under the sink but he is almost completely sure he threw up into it once, so he’d better find something else.

 

He must have been pretty noisy because at one point he finds Sam leaning against the doorframe, rubbing tiredness out of his eyes and wondering if he's hallucinating or if Dean is really there. “What are you doing?”

 

“Cake. Go back to sleep.”

 

“Cake, as in food?”

 

Dean turns to him, his hands on his hips, a handprint of flour on the front of his pajamas, he doesn’t know how he did it since he hasn’t even started yet. He must look like a desperate housewife because Sam, once the initial shock has faded, doesn’t seem to be able to stop laughing. “Yes, Sammy. Food. Now, where can I find a bowl?”

 

Sam snorts, opening the first shutter on his right and taking out a big blue bowl, with a smaller orange bowl in it. “Here. Now, are you planning to murder someone by making them a pie?”

_Just my pride_ , he bitterly thinks, but he knows better than tell Sam this. He takes the bowl and casually pours some flour into it.

 

“Scale?” Sam asks, already pulling it out of the cupboard behind Dean and handing it to him. Then he sits in front of his brother’s mess, “Now, elaborate.”

 

Dean tells him everything while adding ingredients into the bowl until it has the consistency of an already eaten, partly digested and regurgitated soup. The fact that it’s brown is not helping it look any better. He puts it into the oven and patiently waits until it’s half burned to take it out.

 

Sam had gone back to sleep by the time Dean shakes the bottle of whipped cream and sprays it all over the cake, until it’s completely white. He puts it in the fridge and goes back to sleep, he has less than five hours until the alarm sounds and he doesn’t have the energy to clean the mess he has made, so he leaves it for Sam tomorrow morning, since he won’t go to school anyways.

 

He can’t sleep the whole night, so it’s pretty early when he arrives in the parking lot the next morning and it isn’t a surprise when there are only three other cars parked in the lot. The red one is the principal’s; then there is a black Camaro, Mr Willson’s and Dean is pretty sure that he’ll find Ms Karson already at work too, since they happen to come in together pretty often; the last one should be Ms Milton’s car.

 

Dean parks his Baby in its habitual spot and grabs his bag as well as the second one where Sam had stored the cake, patiently waiting for Gabriel to arrive. He has no clue of how they get to school every morning, so every time a car arrives his heart skips a beat. In the end he sees them both. Gabriel is pushingCas’ wheelchair and Castiel is reading something out loud, probably brushing up on some schoolwork.

 

“Good morning,” he approaches them with an apologetic smile, but Gabriel keeps on walking, ignoring him even when Castiel waves at Dean. So Dean continues to follow them, “Gabriel, please, just listen to me.”

 

“Not interested,” Gabriel replies and Cas shrugs,

 

“Told you.”

 

“Wait!” at this point Gabriel stops, moving from behind the wheelchair to face his brother, “You spoke to him? What did he say? Because, I swear, I won’t hesitate to murder him if he-”

 

“Gabe, stand up, this is very embarrassing,” Castiel quickly says, his cheeks a deep purple when Gabriel kneels in front of him, probably just wanting to talk to his brother at eye level. “He just said he was sorry. And I told him you're a jerk who won’t let it go so easily.”

 

“Unless,” at this point Dean interjects the conversation, pushing the bag containing the cake into Gabriel’s hands, “I humiliate myself.”

 

“Oh my God, you really did it?!” Cas almost laughs and when Gabriel looks at him confused and maybe even worried for the mental health of both Dean and his brother, Castiel adds, “I may have told him you’d forgive him, if he was willing to be hit in the face with a cake.”

 

“Lots of cream, right?”

 

Cas looks at him pretty impressed, “You're pretty weird, you know?” he says, while Gabriel hands him back the bag, “Look, man, I'm not doing that.”

 

“Do it Gabriel. I’m waiting.”

 

Gabriel and Dean just stare at each other for a moment, until Cas coughs, patting his brother’s leg, “Come on Gabe. He has been so cute, you can’t hate him forever.”

 

Dean tries his best lovely smile, giving the cake to Gabriel again, “If you want to, you can wait until the parking lot is full. I won’t complain if everyone sees. Just please, don’t get it in my hair, or I'm going to smell for ages.”

 

“I'm not going to hit you with a cake, Dean. Cas was just messing with you.”

 

Evil little bitch. Dean gives him a murderous look, but Cas pretends to be looking somewhere else, a small smile on his face. Dean turns his attention back to Gabriel, “Great. So you're going to hate me forever?”

 

“I don’t hate you.”

 

“Nope. He's just an overprotective bitch,” Cas adds, “But under that leather jacket, he is a soft butter cookie. Now, if you don’t mind, we should eat that cake. You know, since no one is going to have spread across their face.”

 

“Butter cookie?” Dean asks with a half smile and it takes a moment for him to realize that this means that Gabriel is giving him a second chance and he is so happy that he almost forgets to tell Cas that the cake isn’t eatable. “But you can come to my house later. Mom and Dad are out of town and I’m pretty sure Sam would be more than happy to cook for you. Red velvet is his specialty.”

 

“Little Sammy can cook?” Gabriel asks impressed, “Man, I’m gonna marry him.”

 

“Watch out, Gabe. I’m going to have to  kill anyone who goes near my little brother.”

 

Gabriel nonchalantly puts his hands into his pockets, “Hey, I’ll give you mine, if you want him,” he says and Cas quickly punches his leg again, “Geez, thanks. Sold out for a piece of cake.”

 

“Sorry, Cas. But you haven’t met little Sammy yet, you wouldn't understand!”

 

Dean rolls his eyes at Gabriel, “Actually he has,” and when Cas frowns he explains, “Winchester. Sam Winchester, he's in some of your classes, he said so.”

 

Cas thinks about it for a while, “Yeah, sure. Sam. Wasn’t in class yesterday. And talking about class, I really should study before it starts. See you later.”

 

Before Dean has a chance to say anything else, Cas rolls away, a weird smile on his face, while Gabriel glares at him.

 

So now it's just him and Gabriel. “Everything okay?”

 

“Yeah, sorry about Cas. He can be quite weird sometimes.”

 

“I find him adorable,” Dean answers, “Besides he made us make up.”

 

“Okay, stop talking about it or I might regret forgiving you. Now tell me about Sam’s pie.”

 

“Man, that sounds so bad.”

 

 

***

 

 

“So, do I have to tell Sam to bake something?” Dean asks during chemistry class and Gabriel nods, “If you’re sure it’s no bother. But I have to tell my sister, she is supposed to pick us up later.”

“Of course not man, you two are stuck with me today,” Dean happily nods and turns his head to the blackboard again.

He doesn’t pay attention to the lesson, which has happened more often since he had met Gabriel. Only this time it’s not Gabriel he is thinking about. Dean hasn’t thought about it, but how is Cas supposed to get in and out of the car? He should have paid attention this morning, he should have seen how they came to school, but now it’s too late and he doesn’t want to live through another very awkward moment with Gabriel, nor does  he want to harm his Castiels pride again.

 

In the end it’s all he can think about for the rest of the day, until he finds out how useless his worries were. Cas is perfectly capable to transfer himself out of the chair and into the back of the car on his own and Gabriel folds the chair and puts it into the trunk of Dean’s car.

 

When they get out it’s the same and Dean is amazed. Cas’ arms must be pretty shaped up, even if he keeps them well hidden under too big shirts.

 

Sam is waiting for them and as soon as he sees the three of them his eyes light up, “I knew you two couldn’t fight forever!” he says with a bright smile and for a moment Dean is afraid he might hug Gabriel. Luckily he doesn’t, instead he focuses on Castiel, the two of them talking about some school project Dean doesn’t really want to know about.

Sam’s cake is amazing and Dean finds himself almost jealous when Gabriel compliments him so much. Just for a moment he wonders if Gabriel is just being friendly with his little brother or if  maybe there is something more. He pushes back the hard feelings about his little brother and focuses on doing his best to impress Gabriel, which isn’t easy by the way, since he seems to be perfect.

 

Normally Dean would skip his homework and do something else; something like playing videogames, or maybe football in the garden, but Sam persuades him into studying. And Cas is even better than Sam at teaching Dean math; so good that it takes less than an hour for Dean to do all of his homework, which wouldn’t have happened without the younger Novak.

 

Things with Gabriel seems to be going  really well so far and Dean smiles at him, while his friend chews on the cap of his pen, not sure about what to do with the last question, so he hands him his notebook to take a look.

 

Sam and Cas get along surprisingly well too. Okay, it’s not a surprise, but Dean is always amazed when Sam gets a new friend, which doesn’t happen very often; he doesn’t want to think about what will happen when people at school see Sam with Cas, because Dean is ready to stand up for them if necessary and be sure no one messes with them.

 

Dean doesn't know how he and Gabriel ended up upstairs, while the two little brothers stayed downstairs. Somehow Dean busies himself looking for a DVD so they can watch a movie together.

 

“Gabe? Can I ask you something?”

 

 

Gabriel detects his serious tone and solemnly nods, his eyes wandering around the room, as if he's looking for danger. “What’s wrong?”

 

Dean chews on his lip, well aware that he is going to sound impossibly inopportune and meddler, “Castiel. He's strong.”

 

“Is it a question?” Gabriel asks rising his brow and sitting on Dean’s bed.

 

“I mean, physically. He uses his arms to lift his whole body. How can he do that? Not that I find it weird. Just curious. I wouldn’t be able to do that. I’m not really sure any normal person could physically do it at all.”

 

Dean rambles for a while and Gabriel looks at him curious to find out how long Dean can go on rambling and just when his forehead is covered in sweat and completely averting his gaze, Gabriel feels sorry for him and answers. “Enough, Dean, I got it,” he says smiling and waiting for him to relax, “He's a gymnast, he uses his arms a lot.”

 

“Oh.” And suddenly Dean freezes, “Wait. Will he be able to- I mean, he said it’s not permanent.”

 

Gabriel looks down, shrugging, “He said he won’t, he said he's tired of it. But I think he's just scared he’ll fail. We’ll see when it’s time. For now his goal is to lift his feet.”

 

“It must be hard.” It’s not a question, Dean just feels like stating it. He has never thought about how useful his legs really are, it has always been completely normal. Like you breathe but you don’t thank your lungs every day for it. But right now he is impossibly happy about having two fully functioning legs and he feels sorry for Castiel.

 

Gabriel looks down again, “It’s very hard. He pretends to be okay, like this, always smiling and rambling about how he's happy to be alive and that it could have been a lot worse. He's right, of course. But I can see it, I can see how sad he is when he comes back from physiotherapy and he's upset because his legs don’t cooperate and our sister buys him ice cream to make him happy, but he is afraid he's going to gain weight.”

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

“Doesn’t matter. And sorry if I upset you, I’m not the kind of person who goes around crying on someone else’s shoulder.”

 

Dean pats his shoulder. He gets it, he's an older brother too and he knows too well what it means, but right now he doesn’t see Castiel’s older brother, he just sees Gabriel, a seventeen years old guy, scared and upset. “I guess that’s the point, Gabe. If you want to be strong for him, you need someone to rely on too. And I’m here, for what it's worth.”

 

“Thanks, Dean. Really,” Gabriel says faintly, looking up to the ceiling, trying to hold back tears, “I don’t want to cry, not now that he can see me.”

 

“Okay, come on. Let’s think about Sam’s pie.”

 

“Dean, it sounds as bad as when I said it,” Gabriel says, chocking on a half-laugh-half-cry, “May I say, I want to try that pie?”

 

“May I punch you?” Dean grins, playfully punching Gabriel’s arm.


	4. Raphael

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Well, the title is good enough as explanation. Here we meet Raphael. Hope you'll hate him!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Soerry for being so late. Hope you'll enjoy the chapter. Also, I wanted to warn you that I am changing something in the following chapters: I already wrote them a while ago, but I decided to add something else and in the next chapter we will see another character. Guess who?!

After making up, Gabriel and Dean spend all their days together and most of the time Sam and Cas hang around with them too. Everything is fine, even in school and Dean couldn’t have been happier, especially with Raphael out of the way, no one really bothers about what he does or who he hangs out with.

 

His luck doesn’t last very long though. Almost a month after the beginning of school year, Raphael walks again down the school hallway. Dean spots him from his locker. Raphael walks straight, keeping his head up and slamming a fist into a locker when Middy Mason crosses his path; Azazel and Ezekiel walking behind him and grinning, with their stupid faces, probably thinking that with Raphael back they’ll rule the place again. If he said he wasn’t scared, Dean would be lying. He is pretty scared about what is going to happen at this point. He sighs and Sam, next to him, does the same.

 

“Winchester,” he greets, approaching Dean’s locker and giving him a high five which Dean awkwardly answers to, “How have you been, mate?”

 

“Fine, I guess.”

 

“So, don’t you want to know what happened to me?” Raphael asks, answering his own question before Dean has a chance to reply, “They threw me out. Mom and her boy-toy, they sent me to some military school and thought they could get rid of me. Well, you don’t get rid of Raphael that easily, do you?”

 

Dean can see Sam next to him shift uncomfortably on his feet and Dean knows too well what he's thinking. He's wondering what his brother is going to do, if he is willing to go back on all of the progress he's made and startworshiping the floor Raphael walks on or stand up to him.

 

“You don’t, I guess,” Dean replies blankly. He isn’t stupid enough to fight with Raphael without a purpose and get on his death list. He won’t hide himself, though. So when Gabriel and Castiel approach them, Dean gives them all his attention.

 

“Hey, you’re late!” Dean says and Gabriel chews his gum loudly, moving away from Cas’ wheelchair and patting Sam’s shoulder as he always seems to do and shrugs at Dean.

 

Raphael looks at the new kids curling his mouth, as if thinking about something, “New crew, Winchester?” and it’s Dean’s turn to shrug. Here we go.

 

“Hi. I’m Gabriel.”

 

“Raphael. I could say that I’m pleased to meet you, but to be honest I’m a little annoyed no one told me about you two.” then he turns to Dean, “Care to explain?”

 

Dean can see Gabriel snarl and Sam takes a step backwards. The only one who seems unimpressed is Cas and Dean has the upsetting sensation that he knows he is the cause of Raphael being so harsh and maybe he was expecting this to happen.

 

“They’re my friends, nothing to explain,” he finally says and Ezekiel makes a move to go away, only to find Raphael stopping him.

 

“Are you sure, Dean? You want to be friends with someone like that?” he says, pointing to Cas, “Honestly, I would think about it before it’s too late.”

 

Dean takes a deep breath, “I have nothing to think about, Raphael.”

 

“Fine,” he simply says, walking away, followed by the other two boys and Dean just stands there for a couple of seconds, finding his breath again. It wasn’t that hard, was it? He survived and it’s fine.

 

He is about to say something when Castiel turns with his back to them, mumbling something about being late for class and wheeling away.

 

“Late? The bell hasn’t rang yet,” Dean points out, just to receive Sam’s bitch look, the one that says ‘Are you dumb or what?’, the look that tells Dean that he has missed something apparently obvious. And in fact, Gabriel sadly explains, “He isn’t late, he doesn’t want us to see him crying.”

 

And that breaks Dean’s heart.

 

“I’ll talk to him,” he decides, turning the same hallway Castiel has turned to seconds before, leaving Gabriel and Sam alone.

 

He follows Castiel into the male bathroom and as soon as he gets in, he yells to the two other boys to go out. One of them, Dean doesn’t know his name, gives him a look and Dean holds out his punch, just to scare him out; once they are alone, he uses an abandoned chair to hold the door close, so that no one can bother them.

 

“You okay?”

 

“I’m fine,” Castiel answers stubbornly, looking up at the ceiling, the same way Gabriel does when he is forcing himself to hold back tears.

 

“Yeah, you're a worse liar than your brother. Come on, you can cry if you want to. No one will see you.”

Castiel is having none of it, but Dean can see how his chest heaves with every breath, as if it’s more difficult than the last one. “You don’t have to stay here.”

 

“I don’t have to. I want to, that’s the difference,” Dean tells him, leaning against the sink, next to Castiel, “Do you want to talk?”

 

Castiel finally looks at him, mumbling “Not really,” and trying to be as convincing as he can, which isn’t sufficient.

 

“Hey, I know Raphael is a dick, you know? There is a reason I’m not one of his pals anymore. But you don’t have to think about him, okay? And if he gives you anymore crap, you just tell me.”

 

Castiel forces a laugh, “Thank you Dean, but I don’t need another big brother. And I don’t care about him, to be honest.”

 

“If you didn’t care, you wouldn’t be here,” Dean replies, but it takes one look at Cas’ face to understand, “Okay. You're not crying over that son of a bitch. Why are you crying then?”

 

“I’m not,” he says, blinking.

 

Dean can’t help but roll his eyes, “Look, Cas, we're friends, right? We're over the whole ‘pretending to be okay’ thing. You can tell me if there's something wrong, especially if it’s something you don’t want to talk about with your brother. Now, we're already late for class, so talk. You have the next hour.”

 

“I’m just… kind of tired.”

 

“What do you mean?”

 

“I mean I’m not going to walk again, there is no point to keep trying, but my brothers don’t want to understand and they force me to try. And I don’t want to.”

 

A tear escapes his right eye, running down his check and stopping just at the base of his jaw and Dean barely resists the need to wipe it off with his hand. “Why do you say that? Come on, when we first met, you told me it wasn’t permanent. What changed your mind?”

 

Castiel doesn’t answer at first, instead he concentrates all his attention on his feet and Dean looks at them while they barely lift an inch. When they fall limp on the foot rests of the wheelchair, Cas is out of breath and Dean wouldn’t be able to say if it’s for the effort it took to move or if it’s because he is still so upset.

 

“Because,” Castiel finally says, “That’s all I can do right now. And it’s frustrating. And it hurts. And I don’t want to keep trying just to fail again. It would be easier to just let go. To accept that that’s how it’s going to be from now on. Easier.”

 

“Okay, now tell me one thing. Could you do that last week?” Dean already knows the answer. He couldn’t. Gabriel called him three days ago almost crying about the fact that Cas had started to move his feet on his own and that was the greatest thing that could have happened. So, when Cas shakes his head between tears, it’s no surprise, “Right. So maybe you'll be able to bend your knees by the end of the month. Right?”

 

“Maybe. I don’t know if I want to find out.”

 

Dean gives him a sad smile, grabbing a bunch of paper towels  from the supplier on the wall and gives it to Castiel to wipe his face, “Well, you shouldn’t give up, but you don’t need me to remind you, you already know.”

 

“Why are you so sure?” Castiel asks and Dean doesn’t know what to say.

 

“Gabriel said you're a gymnast, don’t you miss doing that?”

 

Castiel’s eyes go wide for a moment, “Gabriel should stop telling people that. But yes, to be honest I miss it every second of my life and- and I won’t be able to do that again and it scares me. It really scares me, Dean.”

 

This is a side of Castiel that Dean has never seen before. There is a big difference from the confident kid who joked about Gabriel being a butter cookie and loving to throw cakes in someone’s face; there is a difference from the happy guy who taught Dean how to solve math’s problems and Dean is scared about this new version of Castiel; scared because it reminds him too much of Gabriel, scared because it makes his heart ache and he doesn’t like to feel so deeply involved in someone else's  life. But then again, he is doing this for Gabriel, because the poor boy needs someone who can help him and Dean is more than willing to help him.

 

“Look, just give yourself more time. It might take a while, it might be slow, but you are doing better and it will be better tomorrow and the day after, but you won't know if you stop trying. What do you think about me coming with you next time?” Now, where did that came from? “I could be your lucky charm, do you like the idea?”

 

Castiel looks at him in awe and Dean feels proud of himself when the little one nods, pure hope in his eyes.

 

“Good. Now, can I unlock the door?” Dean asks and Castiel nods. His cheeks are flushed, it’s clear that he has only just stopped crying, but they still have time before their  next class, so Dean offers to stay with him for a while, until he feels better.

 

When next period starts, Dean finds a pretty upset, almost hysterical Gabriel waiting for him.

 

“I called you. Three times and I called Castiel I don’t know how many times. Where have you been? I looked for you everywhere.”

 

“Not in the most obvious place, the bathroom. It’s fine, Gabriel, he's alright,” Dean pats his shoulder, avoiding Raphael’s stare and reminding Gabriel that they have plans for the afternoon. They are supposed to study together and go see a movie and hopefully not having any other bad meetings.

 

 


	5. Twins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Do you want to meet Cas and Gabe's family? I guess Sam and Dean want to... until they do and regret it!

Dean and Gabriel are sitting at a table in the corner and Gabriel seems unable to stop worrying about his brother, today more than always. It takes a while for Dean to persuade Gabriel to stop fussing over Castiel as if he were a child, because “seriously dude, it’s annoying”. It’s lovely though, to see him being so delicate with Castiel, when he is usually so uncaring with the rest of the world. It’s a pity that it includes Dean too, he wouldn’t mind some of Gabriel’s attention. But whatever.

 

They have planned to study together, which is something they always do lately. What’s new is that they’re gonna go to Gabriel’s. They usually study at school until late, sometimes they go to Dean and Sam’s, but today Gabriel asked them to change places, something about their sister wanting to meet their friends. Seems reasonable, that’s what normal parents do, Dean thinks bitterly, not really knowing what a normal family is supposed to be like.

 

They are still talking about Hannah, their older sister they live with when Sam and Cas approach and it’s instantly clear that something has happened.

 

“What?”

 

“Gabe, we may have some problems here.” Gabriel looks at his brother blinking, his head slightly bent to the right as he considers the severity of the situation when Cas explains, “Hannah can’t come to pick us up.”

 

“What? Why? She said-”

 

“She got a call from the twins’ teacher, I don’t know what’s wrong but she said to tell you not to get angry. She’ll come as soon as possible.”

 

Gabriel reaches for his phone and he has already dialed a number when Dean resolves, “We can all go together with my car, Gabe. No big deal,” gaining a big and genuine smile from Gabriel.

 

“So, Hannah?” Dean asks, inviting Gabriel to continue from where he had stopped a few minutes before.

 

“Yeah. She’s our sister. Cas and I live with her and her boyfriend, Chucky,” Gabriel explains and Castiel adds, “And his twin sons.”

 

“Twins? That’s cool,” Sam replies, excited. He has always loved kids.

 

“It’s not! That’s double the problems, double the noise, double the-” He could have gone on and on, if Cas hadn’t stopped him, rolling his eyes, “Come on Gabe, you love them.”

 

Gabriel shrugs his shoulders and crosses his arms over his chest. “Doesn’t mean they don’t bother me.”

 

 

***

 

 

Dean has to admit that when he thought about Gabriel’s and Castiel’s home he hadn’t been thinking it would have been like that. He doesn’t even bother to consider the style of the house or the furniture. He means that this house seems so… lived in.

 

There are things all around, like videogames on a chair, candy wraps on the table and a couple of blankets on the couch. On the rare occasions when his mom is at home they have to clean everywhere or she’ll be mad and when she isn’t at home there is such a mess that Dean wouldn’t be able to define the carpet on the floor. So, yeah, this is a pretty nice home.

 

Except for the noise.

 

The guys decide to study downstairs, on the couch so that they have more space and can be alone, but that doesn’t shelter their ears from the loud screams coming from upstairs.

 

“And that’s the twins,” Gabriel sighs, turning the page of his math book and shifting on the couch, crossing his legs under himself.

 

Dean isn’t studying at all at this point. He is usually easily distracted but he can see that even Sam is having trouble focusing on his tasks when it begins to sound like someone is being killed upstairs.

 

“Gabe please, tell them to shut up!” Castiel snaps at some point, closing his book almost desperately. Dean is sure that if he could, he would have run upstairs himself just to shut them up. “Guys I really am sorry, it’s just a bad time, they are not always like that.”

 

A few minutes after Gabriel is gone, someone runs downstairs, awkwardly waving at Sam and Dean and giving Cas a phone. “Look at it, Cas. Look at it and tell me to shut up now! Gabriel doesn’t want to listen. “Please,” he speaks so quickly that Dean barely catches his words between raspy breaths, both because he had been running and he is so angry.

 

What catches Dean’s attention by the way is that the kid, one of the twins he guesses, is not a child, he is probably their own age and now Dean is a little bit confused. From the way Cas and Gabe had been talking he was expecting two three years old little ones, not teens in the middle of a crisis.

 

“Give it back!” another boy screams running down the stairs, Gabriel following after a moment, looking as frustrated as he has never been.

 

“Boys stop!” he snaps, but the two of them are too busy arguing to acknowledge him.

 

The smaller boy, the second who came downstairs sort of throws himself at his brother, making him stumble and almost fall on Castiel, he looks ready to punch him, but luckily Gabriel stops him, hugging him from behind and holding him until he stops squirming. He is lucky it’s the little one, because Dean is sure that Gabriel wouldn’t be able to pick the other one up like this.

 

“Great,” Gabriel whispers when the boy stills, “Now, can I let go of you?”

 

“Sure,” he mumbles, crossing his arms on his chest and glaring at his twin.

 

Dean gives Sam a quick look, sharing a confused expression with him. Honestly he wouldn’t mind going elsewhere at this point when it seems that they have some family issues to solve. But it doesn’t matter how much he tries to be discrete and look somewhere else, he can’t help but stare at the scene in front of him and Sam does the same.

 

“Now, what’s going on? Nick, you first.”

 

“He punched me,” Nick begins, almost growling like a wild wolf and the other boy does the same, explaining,

 

“Just because he stole my phone!”

 

“Now, I didn’t tell you to speak, did I? Do you want me to call Chuck?” The boy shakes his head and Gabriel smiles at him for the small victory. “Great. Why did you steal his phone?”

 

“I didn’t steal it. I needed it, since dad has mine.”

 

At this point Castiel comes into the picture too, “That’s the point, Nick. You are grounded and you aren’t supposed to use it, right? Why did you need it?”

 

Nick doesn’t answer and that’s when finally the other boy, whose name is Michael, can explain his point of view. “He didn’t need it, he just wanted to look through my things and I didn’t want him too. He stole it!”

 

“Michael stop yelling or I won’t have another choice but to call Chuck. Okay?”

 

Michael doesn’t reply but he looks on the verge of tears and that makes the other boys feel guilty about it.

 

“Go to your room, now. Both of you.”

 

“I still want my phone. Please.”

 

“Go upstairs now and I’ll give it to you before your dad comes home. No one will use it in the meanwhile. Does that sound fair?”

 

It doesn’t, honestly. In Dean’s opinion no one should look trough someone else’s phone and he gets why the guy is so angry, what he doesn’t get is why Gabriel is acting like that. What gives him the authority to talk to his step brothers like that?

 

As soon as the twins are upstairs again, the door shuts so loud that they can clearly know they are in their room, Dean dares to ask, “Why did you act like that? They aren’t kids.”

 

“Let’s just say,” Castiel interjects for his brother, “They are having some troubles and need to be treated like that.”

 

“How old are they?”

 

“Thirteen.”

 

Gabriel sits on the couch again, leaning with his head on Dean’s shoulder in a way that makes Dean’s heart flip. “I hate them sometimes,” he whines as Castiel rolls his wheelchair closer, handing Michael’s phone to his brother with a whispered, “You should see this, Gabe.”

 

As Gabriel grabs the phone, Dean leans in his direction to read it too.

 

TELL SOMEONE AND YOU ARE DONE. LOVE – C

 

“What’s that?” Dean asks as Gabriel sits up again, almost knocking against his head.

 

“That’s Crowley, isn’t it?” Gabriel asks.

 

“It says “C”. Who else could he be?”

 

Sam is the only one who is still pretending to be studying, but Dean knows that he is still on the same page and by the way he can easily see when his brother tries and fails at being discrete. On the other hand, Dean isn’t even trying to hide how curious he is about the whole situation. It’s not even curiosity itself, it’s more like the desire to know, to understand something more about Gabriel and his whole family.

 

“Nick told me to read it. I guess that’s why Mickey was so angry at him.”

 

“Does he know you saw that?”

 

“Guys, not to be rude, but what’s going on? Sounds serious, and we really don’t want to  intrude, so… Maybe we should go?”

 

“Guys, you can stay, really. It’s nothing serious.”

 

“I wouldn’t say it’s not serious, but you can stay.” Cas confirms. “Maybe you could help, actually.” he adds, looking in Dean’s direction.

 

“I can?” He couldn't tell why, but his heart is beating faster now. Maybe it’s because he doesn’t want to be involved in whatever it is, or maybe it’s because he really would to do anything to be noticed by Gabriel.

 

“Raphael used to bully you, right?”

 

Dean nods, not looking at anyone in particular, staring in the center of the small square the four of them are forming and carefully listening to Castiel, “We think Michael is being bullied.”

 

“We don’t think, we know, actually,” Gabriel corrects him with a hint of anger in his voice.

 

“Nick told us. He said he saw Crowley-”

 

“Isn’t this Crowley guy the one who-” Sam doesn’t end the sentence, just points at Cas and drops it, hoping someone will still answer.

 

“He is,” he says sharply, “So, Nick saw Crowley pulling at his hair in the bathroom and Mickey had been crying, but he doesn’t want to talk about it.”

 

“He gets defensive. He has never been so aggressive before. You saw Nick shouting for no reason? That’s normal. But I have never seen Michael trying to punch someone or yell, like he did before.”

 

“He’s on the edge,” Gabriel sighs, rubbing his jaw. “I don’t know how to help him.”

 

“Why don’t you tell your sister or their dad?” Sam asks the obvious.

 

They realize how stupid the question is when Cas and Gabe roll their eyes at the same time, “Nick tried, of course. Mickey doesn’t want to talk, we have no proof at all so they can’t do anything. Dean, what do you think about it?”

 

Now things are getting pretty strange. Being considered a sort of specialist in bullying makes Dean feel weird and not at ease at all. He has to consider for a moment what he can and can’t talk about. Whatever he says right now, might turn against him the moment Raphael makes a move, so he’d better not say too much. On the other hand, he actually is the only one who knows how that kid must feel like and somehow he wishes he could help. If it had been Sam, he would have done whatever he could to help him. Hell, he has already done whatever he could.

 

“I can’t tell you what to do, but I can tell you what to not do. Don’t treat him like that, like… like you’re threatening him.”

 

“We aren’t!”

 

“Gabriel, you physically stopped him!” Cas protests.

 

“Guys that’s not what I was trying to say. I mean, stealing his phone, looking through his things. He needs his space, he doesn’t need to feel even more pressure, okay?”

 

Gabriel considers it for a moment. “We have been waiting for him to open up, you know? When he came home with a black eye and a split lip, we asked him nicely. Chuck spoke to him. Hannah tried too, she is always so nice, she knows how to handle him. He. Doesn’t. Talk.”

 

Dean just shrugs. He doesn’t know how to help them, he doesn’t know how to rescue Michael just because no one rescued him, he did everything on his own, he stood up for himself. Maybe he should teach that to Michael? He wonders.

 

He is deciding either he wants to talk to Michael or not, when someone knocks on the door.

 

“Guys, you home?”

 

“Hannah!” both Castiel and Gabriel yell from their seats.

 

They don’t talk about what happened only minutes ago and that’s something that worries Dean. He figured they would spend hours debating on what to do, but then he realizes that it’s him and Sam holding them from the conversation.

 

Hannah is nice, she apologizes for not being home sooner and even if they all wonder where she has been, no one dares to ask. Also, she looks so young that Dean has no idea how she can manage with four children, but so far it looks like she is doing a good job, way greater than his mother. He might like this Hannah girl, as much as he already likes half of her family.

 


End file.
